Reasons to be cheerful in Hertford!

Welcome to the fourth Feelgood Friday update from us at Abel

And here are four pieces of news which made us smile this week.

• Salute the Captain. How could we not start with Captain Tom Moore? The 99-year-old war veteran has walked 100 laps of his garden to raise more than £17m for the NHS.

Captain Moore wanted to raise £1,000 for NHS Charities Together by completing 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday.

But he surged past his target after hundreds of thousands of people donated to his fundraising page.

As he finished the challenge, which has made him front-page news up and down the country, he said: “I feel fine, I hope you’re all feeling fine too.”

• Marvellous Miss Maisie. And in another act of support for our NHS superheroes, a ten-year-old girl from Manchester has raised money for the NHS by making rainbow keyrings. Maisie Appleton made the keyrings and started by putting them outside her family’s home. Her mum said: “People passing on their daily walk were welcome to take one and if possible, give a little donation to the Salford Royal Hospital’s official Just Giving page. But it ended up growing bigger than we thought and she has now made a total of 360 keyrings and raised over £250 with donations still coming in. A lot of nurses and NHS staff now have these keyrings after seeing them online, and some have gone to NHS staff at hospitals as far away as London.”
• It’s official – We’re getting more community-spirited. According to a report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), more than half of adults surveyed in the UK say they feel an increased sense of community spirit and cohesion with their neighbours.

The report also stated that staying in touch with family and friends remotely was the most common way for people to try to cope (76.9%) with COVID-19 induced anxiety. So, remember to pick up the phone or send a message and let your loved ones know you are there and that you care.

• Sew kind. Volunteers across the UK are using their sewing skills to make urgently needed hospital uniforms for health workers fighting the Coronavirus outbreak.

Many frontline NHS staff are without the protective clothing they need to do their jobs safely.

And rising to the challenge thousands of amateurs across the UK have taken to their sewing machines and are making hospital overalls – known as scrubs.

More than 50 groups called Scrub Hubs have popped up across the country to provide more uniforms for our health care heroes.

It’s incredible to see the generosity, compassion, ingenuity, kindness and care that people are showing across the UK and in Hertford

From all at Abel if there is anything, we can do to support members of our community in Hertford, please get in touch.